Thursday, October 31, 2013

Page 334

A car flew toward him, and Stoker ducked under it. The cracking boom of lightning made the fog shudder and swirl. Magnetic waves shifted the air and flipped more vehicles, making traffic in both directions come screeching to a halt.

Stoker ran left, widening and deepening the fog. Sparks flew through the cloud, stirring the air, brewing up a storm. This was, after all, why Stoker and Karkash were anti-air specialists. Given time, their combined abilities could create weather more ferocious than any conventional aircraft could withstand.

A silver pickup truck appeared through the fog much too suddenly. It slammed into Stoker, knocking him clear off the road and through the wall of a grocery store. Debris and produce left people fleeing in all directions.

Stoker’s fog subsided as his concentration did, as he was more concerned with struggling back to his feet while half the bones in his body shifted back into place and repaired themselves. He shoved the truck out of the way, its bearded driver either dead or unconscious at the wheel. He made his way outside again.

The violent changes in air pressure had already kicked up a small wind, and he knew that his cloud would soon be pushed away. He decided it would be wiser to attack before making more.

The miniscule amount of acid in his stomach would be of no great use alone, but he could tunnel through his own body with hydrogen in order to reach the extra chlorine in his kidneys and the oxygen in his blood and lungs; and when strengthened with imaginary power, his acid would be both strong enough and voluminous enough to eat through even concrete within seconds.

‘Where is he?’ Stoker asked.

‘Straight ahead five meters, left two more, and you will be behind him.’

The acid swelled up as he ran, eating him from the inside, and as soon as he saw Karkash, he spat out a sizzling, bloody glob.

I'm not exactly sure that Hector and Co. are zombies. Undead, certainly, but I think that to be a zombie, it's important that you be a mindless predator desirous of human meat. Whatever Hector and the rest are, they're not mindless predators. Even Geoffrey, vicious as he was, was not mindless.

If you're interested in learning more, you'll notice that the Hollywood version is the "Zombie (fictional)" article on wikipedia, while the original corpse reanimated by a vodou sorcerer version is the "Zombie" article.